


With Me, Then Gone

by two_of_swords



Series: Thousand Followers Prompts [5]
Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Adam leaves for college angst, M/M, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Prompt Fill, Tumblr Prompt, and non-explicit dorm sex, but also some fluff, more like fade to black dorm sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-18
Updated: 2018-11-18
Packaged: 2019-08-25 17:07:05
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16664797
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/two_of_swords/pseuds/two_of_swords
Summary: “Hey. It’s gonna be ok. I’ll be back before you know it,” Adam murmurs as he rubs a soothing hand up and down Ronan’s spine.Ronan doesn’t respond, just keeps breathing deeply into the side of Adam’s neck, making it hot and sweaty in the late August sun, but Adam doesn’t pull away. He gives Ronan all the time he needs.Minutes later, Ronan lifts his head with a goofy grin and says, “Fuck it. I’m coming with you.”





	With Me, Then Gone

**Author's Note:**

> Tumblr prompt fill #74 "Knowing us, this is bound to go wrong." - Sent by Anonymous

“So this is it,” Adam says, throwing his duffel bag into the back seat of his shitty car. He shuts the door and turns back to Ronan and tries his best to ignore the pathetic look on his face. Part of him wishes Opal was still around to provide an appropriate distraction, but he said his goodbyes to her yesterday. **  
**

Ronan crosses his arms over his chest. “You sure you got everything.”

“I’m sure.” Adam had checked and double checked his bags and plastic bins the night before. “Come here.”

Ronan hesitates before taking a step towards the car and Adam, but then he practically falls into Adam’s arms. He presses his face into the hollow of Adam’s neck and inhales deeply.

“Hey. It’s gonna be ok. I’ll be back before you know it,” Adam murmurs as he rubs a soothing hand up and down Ronan’s spine.

Ronan doesn’t respond, just keeps breathing deeply into the side of Adam’s neck, making it hot and sweaty in the late August sun, but Adam doesn’t pull away. He gives Ronan all the time he needs.

Minutes later, Ronan lifts his head with a goofy grin and says, “Fuck it. I’m coming with you.” He pushes away from Adam and races around the side of the car to the passenger door.

“Ronan. You can’t,” Adam says, attempting to be reasonable.

“I can. And I will.” Ronan does the unreasonable thing and gets into the shitbox and slams the door. Adam has no choice now but to follow suit.

“You don’t have anything with you.”

“I don’t need anything.”

“Clothes? Shoes?” He looks at Ronan’s bare feet. He’s glad that Ronan at least got dressed when they rolled out of bed this morning.

“I’ll just wear yours.”

Adam laughs. “Okay. But how will you get back home?”

“I’ll fucking fly. Christ, Parrish, I’m being spontaneous.”

Adam just stares at him. “Knowing us, this is bound to go wrong.”

“This is the best idea I’ve ever had. What could possibly go wrong?”

Adam glances over at the blocks the car only recently came down from still sitting in the gravel. “Climate change. Terrorism. Air travel is halted and you’re stuck on a college campus forever.”

“Blatant fear mongering, Parrish.” Ronan leans over the center console and kisses Adam. “Now drive.”

—–

Absolutely nothing goes wrong during the drive. The Hondayota drives like a dream. They stop twice along the way- once at a rest stop so Adam can help Ronan book his flight back home for the next morning on his phone, which takes longer for Adam to get over the exorbitant cost of a last minute flight than it does to actually buy the ticket - and then again when Ronan can’t stand to wear Adam’s too small sneakers for another goddamn minute, so they find a mall where Ronan can buy a new pair of boots, which he swears he needs anyway.

Surprising no one, least of all Ronan, Adam is one of the first students to arrive at his dormitory. He checks in with the resident advisor, while Ronan finds the room with Adam’s name on the door. It only takes them an hour to haul up all of Adam’s stuff and put away his belongings.

“So when’s Nate getting here?” Ronan asks, gesturing to the other name on the open door.

Adam checks his text messages. “Not until tomorrow.”

Ronan flops down on Adam’s freshly made bed. “Good. That gives us plenty of time to break this in,” he says, patting the tiny bit of empty space next to him.

Adam immediately shuts the door and joins him.

After, they lay in the golden light of the late afternoon sun - a tangle of naked limbs, clinging to each other, afraid to let go - until Adam’s stomach growls so loud they can’t ignore their other needs any longer.

“Holy fuck, Parrish, why didn’t you say you were hungry?” Ronan gets out of bed and sorts through their clothes, tossing Adam his shirt and boxers and jeans, before stepping into his own. Adam dresses quickly and stashes the lube and box of condoms in the back of a drawer, while Ronan fixes the bed.

There are plenty of options for food, which seems to please Ronan. Adam treats him to dinner and then they wander around the quiet campus at dusk. Adam can’t hide his growing excitement as they pass the library and the science building and the rec center and yet another cafeteria.

They stop in the middle of a footbridge and lean on the railing, listening to the cicadas and admiring the view of the lazy river flowing beneath them.

“You’re going to fucking love it here.”

“I think so too.”

“I told you.”

“I know.”

—–

They arrive at the airport before dawn. Adam parks at the curb of the terminal for departures and puts on his hazards. He’s probably not supposed to park there, but he’s too tired and heartsick to care. It’s going to be just as hard to say goodbye this time as it was yesterday morning.

They both reluctantly get out of the car. Ronan folds Adam into his arms as Adam yawns in his face. They didn’t sleep last night. They pressed close together in the tiny bed and held each other, kissing and touching and talking as needed until it was time to go.

Ronan speaks first. “I’m glad I came. At least now I know there’s a sturdy roof over your head and plenty of food and you have protection just in case.”

Adam’s tired, but he’s not that tired. “Wait… are you talking about the condoms? In case of what??”

“In case I spontaneously come to visit you again sometime. I can barely remember to bring my shoes, Parrish.”

“You’re ridiculous. I love you.”

“I love you too.”

Adam kisses him. He makes it a good one, worth remembering, worth lingering over until they need to breathe and they stop and press their foreheads together.

“Fall break is in six weeks,” Adam reminds Ronan once he’s able to talk again.

“Already counting the days.”

They kiss one last time.

“Bye, Lynch.”

“Bye, Parrish.”

Adam lets go and watches Ronan walk away. Then he has a thought. “You did bring your wallet, didn’t you?” he calls. “You’ll need an ID.”

Ronan turns and digs his wallet out of his back pocket and waves it at Adam with a grin.

Adam smiles and gets into the car and drives back to his dorm. He only cries a little on the way.

—-

“Did your parents leave already? I was hoping to meet them,” Nate’s mother says.

It’s the question Adam has been dreading. “No, ma’am. My parents did not come with.”

“Who helped you with all your stuff? That RA seems rather useless.”

The temptation to lie hovers close to the surface but Adam squashes it. He takes a deep breath and responds, “my boyfriend, ma’am, but he had to catch a flight back home early this morning.”

“Oh, is that him?” Nate’s mother smiles widely and points to one of the pictures Ronan had insisted on tacking up on the bulletin board above Adam’s desk “so the first thing you see when you unbury your nose from your books is my face”, but also because Adam knows Ronan likes how buff his own arms look in it. “Sun’s out, guns out, Parrish,” Ronan had said when he saw the pic on Adam’s phone. To which Adam had responded, “don’t ever say that again.”

Adam grins stupidly at the picture. “Yeah, that’s him.”

“What a handsome young man! Hopefully we can meet him next time.”

Nate mouths “sorry” to Adam from behind his mother’s shoulder. But Adam is okay. Everything is okay.

“I’d like that.” Adam says. And he means it.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm @two-of-swords-621 on Tumblr, where asks, messages, likes and reblogs are always welcome. <3
> 
> The title is a lyric from the song Skin by Lume, which is my favorite Adam-going-away-to-college song.


End file.
